National Security Science and Engineering Faculty Fellowship program provides grants to top-tier researchers from U.S. universities to conduct unclassified, basic research that may transform DoD's capabilities in the long term.

"... for distinguished contributions to the field of interactions between atoms and light, especially for the achievement of 'slow light' in dilute cold atomic gases."

Prof. Markus Greiner, grad students Waseem Bakr, Jonathon Gillen and Amy Peng, and post doc Simon Foelling published a letter in Nature describing a quantum gas 'microscope' realizing a system in which atoms of a macroscopic ensemble are detected individually and a complete set of degrees of freedom for each of them is determined through preparation and measurement. By implementing a high-resolution optical imaging system, single atoms are detected with near-unity fidelity on individual sites of a Hubbard-regime optical lattice. Nature 462, 74-77 (5 Nov. 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08482.

Prof. David Weitz and colleagues from DEAS, Columbia University, University of North Texas, and Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) described a new way to model the formation of glasses, a type of amorphous solid that includes common window glass. Nature 462, 83-86 (5 November 2009) | doi:10.1038/nature08457

2:45-3:30 Reception in the Physics Library, 4th Floor
3:30-3:45 Tribute to Norman Ramsey: Jefferson 250
3:45-4:30 E. Norval Fortson (U. Washington), "A Permanent Electric Dipole Moment The Quest Continues".
4:30-5:15 David Wineland (NIST), "Microwave Masers to Optical Clocks Perspectives on Five Decades".

The work, titled Hypermusic Prologue: A Projective Opera in Seven Planes, was presented at the Pompidou Center in Paris on June 14-15, 2009. Watch a performance video at dailymotion.com; also read an article in the Gazette and a review in Nature (460, 177, 9 July 2009 | doi:10.1038/460177a)

in which they present evidence of a naturally occurring icosahedral quasicrystal that includes six distinct fivefold symmetry axes. The mineral, an alloy of aluminum, copper, and iron, occurs as micrometer-sized grains associated with crystalline khatyrkite and cupalite in samples reported to have come from the Koryak Mountains in Russia. The results suggest that quasicrystals can form and remain stable under geologic conditions, although there remain open questions as to how this mineral formed naturally. (Luca Bindi, Paul J. Steinhardt, Nan Yao, Peter J. Lu, "Natural Quasicrystals", Science 324, 5 June 2009 | doi: 10.1126/science.1170827)

Two of the department's longest serving and most dedicated staff will be retiring on June 30.

Vickie Greene has been for more than twelve years the personification of the department's Purchasing Office. Her "customer first" attitude and fierce commitment to keeping the vendors happy and the books in perfect order, have even been recognized by visits from other departments to study her system.

Charlene Newell, during the last fourteen years, has been the trusted right hand of a total of nine faculty and senior staff. A consummate generalist, she has supported their teaching, research, and administrative work with a rich repertoire of professional skills and an unflappable ability to keep many balls in the air at once.

We wish Vickie and Charlene the happiest of retirements. They will be sorely missed.

"...in recognition of [his] contributions to undergraduate teaching, advising, and mentoring". Read the Gazette article.

Professors Hongkun Park and Mikhail Lukin, along with colleagues at Harvard and at Pohang University in Korea, published a letter in Nature Physics, in which they describe a new all-electrical technique for detecting surface plasmon polaritons and single plasmon sources. (A. Falk, F. Koppens, C. Yu, K. Kang, N. Snapp, A. Akimov, M.-H. Jo, M. Lukin, and H. Park, "Near-field electrical detection of optical plasmons and single-plasmon sources", Nature Physics, published online: 24 May 2009 | doi:10.1038/nphys1284)

White Prize: David Benjamin, Colin Connolly, Timothy French, Jonathon Gillen, Laura Jeanty, Katharine Jensen, Mason Klein, Billy Lau, Corry Lee, Rachel McCord, Nils Sorenson, and Yang Qi.

Sanderson Award: Lin Cong.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 4:15 p.m.
Northwest Building, Room B103
52 Oxford Street, Cambridge , MA

Dr. Steven Chu, distinguished scientist and co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics (1997), was appointed by President Obama as the 12th Secretary of Energy and sworn into office on January 21, 2009. Dr. Chu has devoted his recent scientific career to the search for new solutions to our energy challenges and stopping global climate change – a mission he continues with even greater urgency as Secretary of Energy. He is charged with helping implement President Obama’s ambitious agenda to invest in alternative and renewable energy, end our addiction to foreign oil, address the global climate crisis and create millions of new jobs.

Sponsored by: Department of Physics, Harvard University Center for the Environment, and School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

This award recognizes the special role that Harvard's Physics Department has played in the establishment of the physics discipline within the U.S. and the prominence of numerous Harvard physicists and applied scientists at the research frontier in this field.

A celebration of this event will occur from 4:00 to 4:30 pm on April 27, in Jefferson room 250, during which the President of the American Physical Society and incoming Harvard SEAS Dean Cherry Murray will present a commemorative plaque to Harvard President Drew Faust. The Department of Physics invites the Harvard community to join us for this ceremony. Read the Gazette article.

for "a demonstrated exemplary commitment to the achievement of equity for women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics".

in this week's cover story of Physical Review Letters: "Electro-Optical Nanotraps for Neutral Atoms" (102, 033003, 22 Jan. 2009 | doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.033003). The article is also featured in the APS publication Physics: Spotlighting Exceptional Research. The work represents the first merging of cold atom and nanoscale technologies, and shows that atoms can be trapped and cooled to extremely low temperatures with chip integrated nanostructures at room temperature. This has major importance for the field of quantum physics and technology, allowing for the creation of novel nano-optic devices and for fundamental investigations of quantum physics at the nanoscale.

"... for mentoring students for over 50 years in nuclear science, engineering and technology and his tireless efforts promoting peaceful application of nuclear power in support of 'Getting the Word Out'. Through over 900 papers and publications, and myriad lectures, he has provided invaluable insight and wisdom giving the nuclear community a profound legacy from which to draw knowledge. Professor Wilson's distinguished career is an inspiration."

The Conference, organized by the Sakharov Program on Human Rights & The Cold War Studies Project at The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies in conjunciton with the Harvard Department of Physics, will take place at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Please consult the Conference website for further information.

Senior Lecturer on Physics R. Walsworth and his team created a new, walk-in, low-field, MRI system which will have applications for medical imaging, especially the MRI of the lungs. Read the Gazette story.

The award recognizes the Ph.D. dissertations completed by Hertz Fellows during the preceding academic year for their overall excellence and pertinence to high-impact applications of the physical sciences.

Professors Amir Yacoby and Mikhail Lukin, senior lecturer Ronald Walsworth, grad students Jeronimo Maze and Liang Jiang, post doc Jonathan Hodges, and research associate Alexander Zibrov, together with colleagues from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, SEAS, MIT, and University of Pittsburgh, demonstrated a new approach to nanoscale magnetic sensing. In a letter to journal Nature, the researchers described their new magnetic sensor which is potentially capable of probing extremely weak magnetic fields, such as those generated by the spin of an electron or a nucleus. This invention may potentially benefit a wide ranging of scientific fields, from materials science to biomedicine: "Nanoscale magnetic sensing with an individual electronic spin in diamond". (Nature 455, 2 Oct 2008 | doi:10.1038/nature07279)

for her "path-breaking" experiments with stopping and reviving light pulses. The Ledlie Prize is awarded no more than once every two years to someone affiliated with Harvard University who "since the last awarding of said prize has by research, discovery or otherwise made the most valuable contribution to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind". [Read the Gazette story]

Prof. Park, to develop new nano- and microelectronic tools that enable the meticulous study of the design principles of the brain, and Prof. Samuel, to develop new biophysical and imaging techniques to link behavioral responses with neuronal activity. [Read the Gazette story]

to further develop electronic sequencing in nanopores. The grant is part of more than $20 million in total funding given by NHGRI/NIH to spur innovative sequencing technologies inexpensive and efficient enough to sequence a person's DNA as a routine part of biomedical research and health care.

The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics awards the Dirac Medal annually to scientists who have made significant contributions to physics.

The exercise was part of a continuing collaborative effort to improve basic science education. This project, called Picturing to Learn, is supported by a National Science Foundation grant and also involves Duke University and Roxbury Community College in Boston. Read the New York Times article.

Harvard Physics grad student Peter Lu, Prof. David Weitz, and colleagues from University of Rome and University of Edinbourgh published a letter in Nature, in which they reported on their study demonstrating that gelation of short-ranged attractive particles is driven by phase separation: P.J. Lu, E. Zaccarelli, F. Ciulla, A.B. Schofield, F. Sciortino, & D.A. Weitz, Nature 453, 499-503 (22 May 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06931.

at a ceremony in Madrid on April 22, 2008. It is the highest award of Spain's new Ministry of Science.

in recognition of her "distinguished and continuing achievements in original research".

The Center created the Environmental Fellows program to enable recent doctorate recipients to use and expand Harvard's extraordinary resources to tackle complex environmental problems.

The goal of this meeting is to provide an informal and supportive forum for discussing research on quantum systems: strongly correlated systems, atomic and optical systems, and mesoscopics.

The honor will be conferred by the Austrian Minister of Science and Research at his office at the Ministry on June 23, 2008.

by achieving a remarkable 22.39 percent reduction in energy use in Jefferson and Lyman Laboratories. Read the Gazette article of Apr. 17, 2008.

Participants: CUA (Harvard and MIT), ITAMP, Yale, University of Connecticut and Boston University.
Location: Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA. For schedule, please consult the Poster.

This Symposium is sponsored by the PhD Track in Engineering and Physical Biology and marks a milestone for the EPB project. It comprises the first half of an "EPB day" designed to bring students from the EPB program together with outstanding visiting scholars as well as faculty from its constituent parts (MCB, Physics and SEAS).

The day will be divided into two parts. The morning (until 1:00pm) will be a public symposium featuring four visiting faculty. Everyone in the Harvard community is welcome to attend, and the talks should be of wide general interest. The afternoon will feature 10-minute presentations by each EPB graduate student, in a more intimate and informal setting that provides an opportunity for contact and exchange of ideas between students and faculty outside of (as well as within) the University. These sessions will not be open to the general public.

For more information on the Symposium, please see the Poster and contact Julia Blackbourn (juliab[at]mcb.harvard.edu).

Researchers in Dr. Ronald Walsworth's group, together with colleagues from MIT, reported the fabrication of a wide-line-spacing comb, or "astro-comb", which should allow highly precise measurements of astronomical radial velocity.
Read their letter in Nature: Li, C.-H., A.J. Benedick, P. Fende, A.G. Glenday, F.X. Kärtner, D.F. Phillips, D. Sasselov, A. Szentgyorgyi, & R. L. Walsworth, "A laser frequency comb that enables radial velocity measurements with a precision of 1 cm s-1" (Nature 452, 3 April 2008 | doi:10.1038/nature06854). Read also "Extrasolar planets: With a coarse-tooth comb" by G. Walker in "News and Views" (ibid, 538-539 | doi:10.1038/452538a) and the Press release on the Harvard Science website.

Prof. Eric Mazur has been elected a fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) in recognition of his "pioneering contributions to optical waveguiding at the nanoscale level and to understanding the interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with materials." He also received OSA's Esther Hoffman Beller Medal for "developing and globally disseminating the innovative teaching methodology now known as "Peer Instruction", which promotes deeper understanding of the fundamentals of science".

In addition, the American Association of Physics Teachers awarded Prof. Mazur the Robert A. Millikan Medal, which recognizes "those who have made outstanding scholarly contributions to physics education".

The prize, awarded by Tel Aviv University in the fields of physics and chemistry, is intended "to encourage dedication to science, originality and excellence by rewarding outstanding young scientists.

Harvard University, February 29 - March 1, 2008. For more information, please consult the Symposium website and read the Gazette article.

The Summit and Conference bring together over 500 African American and Hispanic American physics students and professionals. This conference has a cutting-edge scientific program as well as a student professional development program that includes mentor-protege match-making and a recruiting fair.

Prof. Xiaowei Zhuang and colleagues from the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and from DEAS published a Report in Science:
Bo Huang, Wenqin Wang, Mark Bates, Xiaowei Zhuang, "Three-Dimensional Super-Resolution Imaging by Stochastic Optical Reconstruction Microscopy." (Science 319, 8 Feb 2008 | DOI: 10.1126/science.1153529)

Professors Mikhail Lukin and Eugene Demler with colleagues from Johannes Gutenberg-Universität, Technische Universität Kaiserslautern, Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics, and Boston University, published a research article in Science: S. Trotzky, P. Cheinet, S. Fölling, M. Feld, U. Schnorrberger, A.M. Rey, A. Polkovnikov, E.A. Demler, M.D. Lukin, I. Bloch, "Time-Resolved Observation and Control of Superexchange Interactions with Ultracold Atoms in Optical Lattices". (Science 319, 18 Jan 2008 | DOI: 10.1126/science.1150841)

Prof. Mara Prentiss and grad student Ephraim Feinstein, together with colleagues from colleagues from Harvard Medical School and University of California, Berkeley, published a letter in Nature Nanotechnology which describes a magnetic nanotechnology that activates a biochemical signalling mechanism normally switched on by binding of multivalent chemical ligands. This technique may represent a new actuator mechanism for cell-based microtechnologies and man-machine interfaces. (see R.J. Mannix, S. Kumar, F. Cassiola, M. Montoya-Zavala, E. Feinstein, M. Prentiss & D.E. Ingber, Nature Nanotechnology 3, 23 December 2007 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2007.418)

Prof. David A. Weitz and colleagues Peter Schall (U Amsterdam) and Frans Spaepen (SEAS) published a report in Science, in which they describe their use of a colloidal glass to obtain direct three-dimensional images of thermally induced structural rearrangements in the presence of an applied shear. (Science 318, 21 December 2007 | DOI: 10.1126/science.1149308).

In this experiment, Prof. Hau - with graduate student Naomi Ginsberg and post doctoral fellow Sean Garner - extinguished a slow light pulse in one Bose-Einstein condensate, then subsequently revived it from a totally different condensate, 160 microns away. For more information, please consult Prof. Hau's website.

Professors Amir Yacoby and Bertrand Halperin with coleagues from the Weizmann Institute, Bell Labs, and Yale University, published a letter in Nature Physics in which they describe the first experimental evidence for charge fractionalization in one dimension. Hadar Steinberg, Gilad Barak, Amir Yacoby, L.N. Pfeiffer, K.W. West, B.I. Halperin & K. Le Hur, Nature Physics 4, 116 - 119 (2008) Published online: 16 December 2007 | doi:10.1038/nphys810.

The Bok Center Players present an interactive-theatre short play "Trouble in the Lab",  followed by a Physics & SEAS Faculty Panel addressing "What I Wish I'd Known as a Graduate Student" and then an informal reception.  Maxwell Dworkin 119,  2:30-5:30pm.  See the poster!

"for [his] numerous outstanding contributions to statistical physics and condensed matter theory, especially dynamical critical phenomena and low dimensional electronic properties".

Researchers Alexey Akimov, Aryesh Mukherjee, and Alexander Zibrov, grad students Darrick Chang, professors Hongkun Park and Mikhail Lukin, together with colleagues from Harvard Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and from Texas A&M University, published a letter in Nature, in which they demonstrated a cavity-free, broadband approach for engineering photon-emitter interactions via subwavelength confinement of optical fields near metallic nanostructures. (A.V. Akimov, A. Mukherjee, L. Yu, D.E. Chang, A.S. Zibrov, P.R. Hemmer, H. Park, & M.D. Lukin, Nature 450, 15 Nov 2007 | doi:10.1038/nature06230)

"for his pioneering work in the history of physics, especially on Einstein and relativity. His writing, lecturing, and leadership of major educational projects introduced the history of physics to a mass audience". The prize is given annually by APS in recognition of outstanding scholarly achievements in the history of physics. It is open to scholars world-wide and consist of $10,000.

Prof. Amir Yacoby and colleagues from the Weizmann Institute and Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung published an article in Nature Physics, in which they describe their use of scanning single-electron transistor to observe electron–hole puddles in graphene. J. Martin, N. Akerman, G. Ulbricht, T. Lohmann, J. H. Smet, K. von Klitzing & A. Yacoby. Nature Physics 4, 144 - 148 (2008) (Published online: 25 November 2007) | doi:10.1038/nphys781

Congratulations to graduate students Jacob Barandes, David Hoogerheide, Real Esteban, Mason Klein and David Patterson for receiving Spring 2007 Certificates of Distinction for Excellence in Teaching from the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning. The certificates are awarded to section leaders who scored 4.5 or higher on the CUE evaluations by their students.

Prof. Xiaowei Zhuang and colleagues from SEAS, Harvard Medical School and Chemistry Department reported on their new technique for multicolor imaging of DNA samples with 20- to 30-nanometer resolution. This technique will facilitate direct visualization of molecular interactions at the nanometer scale. (Read the report by Mark Bates, Bo Huang, Graham T. Dempsey, and Xiaowei Zhuang in Science 317, Sept 2007 | doi:10.1126/science.1146598)

Prof. Christopher Stubbs, a member of the High-z Supernova Search team lead by Brian Schmidt (Australian National University), was one of the recipients of the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize for the discovery that the universe's expansion is accelerating. The team received the award jointly with the Supernova Cosmology Project, lead by Saul Perlmutter of UC Berkeley, at a ceremony in Cambridge (UK) on Sept. 7, 2007. The official citation stressed that "the discovery of the accelerated expansion has radically changed our perception of cosmic evolution". Read the press releases from the Gruber Foundation and from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Research on the physics of "warm ice" by graduate student Alexander Wissner-Gross and Prof. Efthimios Kaxiras is featured in New Scientist ("Warm ice layer could make implants biocompatible" by B. Dumé, Sept. 4, 2007). Their short film on the effect, Song of Diamond and Ice, was named a Finalist in the 2006 Materials Research Film Festival. Read also the Harvard Gazette article: "'Hot' ice could lead to medical device" by Alvin Powell (Gazette Online, Sept. 20, 2007)

Graduate student Ben Campbell Smith has developed an algorithm that will dramatically slash the time it takes to sort and catalog billions of genome sequences from the Joint Genome Institute and other research centers. ("Genome Matchmaker", CRD Report, Aug 2007.)

Prof. Robert Westervelt and colleagues from Yale, Delft University of Technology and Philips Research Laboratories obtained detailed images of electron flow in a nanowire using a scanning probe microscope. Read a report in Nature Nanotechnology: "Nanowires: Joining the dots" by Tim Reid (published online 24 Aug 2007), as well as the original article: A.C. Bleszynski, F.A. Zwanenburg, R. M. Westervelt, A.L. Roest, E.P.A.M. Bakkers, and L.P. Kouwenhoven, "Scanned probe imaging of quantum dots inside InAs nanowires", Nano Letters (web release: 11 Aug 2007).